


A Potion a Day Keeps All (Supernatural) Illnesses Away

by Tavriel



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Developing Relationship, F/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, healer moon, moon is a witch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24941584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tavriel/pseuds/Tavriel
Summary: Moon lives an average life working in her family's magic shop and secretly hoping she'll find a job that will let her put her degree in Potions to good use. Then she gets a job working at a herbalist's shop and finds herself treating a variety of supernatural creatures. Along the way she keeps running into a guy who just can't stop getting injured.
Relationships: Gladio | Gladion/Mizuki | Selene (Pokemon Sun & Moon)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	A Potion a Day Keeps All (Supernatural) Illnesses Away

**Author's Note:**

> Quick warning-Moon cuts herself at the beginning of the fic so she can practice healing spells.

Moon holds a knife in her hands. She's made sure that the knife is clean. She takes a deep breath and tries to empty her mind of all thoughts. But the thoughts come back like the tide. It's like she's at the beach and trying to dig a pool right near the water and the water keeps constantly coming in and wrecking her pool. She couldn't fight against the tides since water magic isn't her specialty and even water specialists wouldn't try to halt the tides. But she hopes she can fight against her own thoughts. 

This is her first time doing a healing spell. She's chosen to attempt to heal a cut for a few reasons. One, a cut shouldn't interfere with her work too badly, depending on where it was made. She really doesn't feel like breaking a bone and doing things from a wheelchair or one handed. Of course if she does break a bone she can always go to a healer and have them reset it, but that might lead to a bunch of questions. According to the journal articles and used textbooks, healing a cut is easier than healing a broken bone.

Of course there are complications when it comes to healing a cut. Depending on where the cut was made, a person could bleed out within seconds. Moon already knows that she should avoid her wrists, but she's read about a case on a forum about someone who had cut their pinky. It was a small cut, but after a few days they realized they couldn't bend their pinky. They'd needed surgery. Moon knows that the most innocuous injury can have devastating results.

Moon takes another deep breath and slashes the knife at her arm. The blood wells up. The pain comes next and for a moment Moon can't concentrate. She tries to gather her magic, but it's not working. She can only focus on the stinging pain and the blood running down her arm. Her heart beats faster and for a moment she thinks that she's cut through a vein or an artery. She forces herself to remain calm. She's heard that her heart rate being faster means the blood pumps out faster. Moon tries to gather her magic yet again. She pictures her magic as little drops. She pictures the drops forming into a stream and then flowing back to her.

Now the magic gathers around her. Moon gathers her magic in her non injured hand and runs her finger along the wound. The wound closes and all that's left is a scar. Moon scowls. She's pretty sure others would have been able to heal so that there was no scar. I'll do better next time, Moon tells herself. I need to be able to concentrate through the pain in order to heal. The jingling of a bell breaks her out of her thoughts and she jumps. Right. She's at her parents' magic shop. It probably isn't the best time to be conducting experiments, but in her defense, it's been slow today. She casts a cleaning spell and steps out of the back room. 

“Hi!” Moon says. She tries to make her voice as welcoming as possible. “Can I help you?” The customer needs a protection charm. Moon rummages around on the shelves as she looks for a protection charm. “What sort of protection charm?” she asks. “Are you looking to ward off negative spirits, negative energy, intruders, that sort of thing? Is it for your home or are you just going to wear the charm? Because we have protection items for your home and protection items for your person.” As she's speaking, she's removing items such as a marigold garland, several bracelets and necklaces, and a few figurines.   
“Do they all have the same basic protection charm?” the customer asks.

Moon nods. “The figurines have the same protection charms,” she says. The figurines range from an elephant to a vase to a doll. She indicates the marigold garland and the bracelets and the necklace. “But these items have a little something extra.” She indicates the marigold garlands. “These prevent evil from entering the home.” 

The customer picks up a necklace. “What about this?” she asks. “It's beautiful, by the way.” Moon beams. “Thank you. I made it myself. My dad gets the crystal from Ten Carat Hill. He likes to explore there sometimes. I personally prefer the beach or the trails or the meadows. These crystals can naturally be used for protection, but then I saw some jewelry when I went to a flea market and thought, “Why don't I do something like that?” She wants to talk more, to tell the customer about the different uses for the crystals, such as promoting clarity of thought, healing, preventing bad dreams, but she doesn't want to ramble too much. Sometimes it's irritating when she's trying to decide on whether or not to purchase an item and the salesperson won't stop talking. 

The customer examines the necklace for a few more minutes. “I think I'll take this,” she says, and Moon nods. She rings the customer up and wishes her a good day. Then she puts all the items back. The crystal necklaces were a good idea, she thinks. Her dad loves exploring the cave. He can sense the crystals and uses his magic to enhance the natural properties of them. Should she have mentioned that? Moon wonders. She supposes it doesn't matter since the customer did buy a necklace. 

Jewelry had really been a good idea, Moon thinks. People like buying jewelry. She remembers when she used to work at a tea shop in the mall. They'd get no customers. Meanwhile, the jewelry store across from them had customer's going in and out. There were lines on holidays.

Moon turns her attention to her injured arm. This time gathering the magic is easier and she runs her hand along the scar. The scar fades back into her skin and Moon grins in triumph. She's done it. She's done a healing spell. For a moment she allows herself to think about a future in Healing, in setting up her own practice or working at a hospital. She allows herself to think about learning about different diseases and different injuries, and doing clinicals or rotations or whatever the word is. But then reality rears it's head. She can't afford to get her Master's in Healing, no matter how much her mother might push. She has her Bachelor's Degree in Potions, which is good, but isn't leading to any permanent jobs. Occasionally there will be a customer who needs a mild potion like a headache potion or a sleep potion, but it's not the future she imagined for herself.

In her imagined future, she'd have her own apothecary. People would come from all over seeking her cures. There's still a chance for that future, Moon tells herself. You aren't dead yet. 

Her phone chimes. “Pretty sure there's a vampire at the restaurant.” Moon grabs it and texts back. “They cute?” 

“Never mind that- can they even eat?”

“Idk. Why don't you ask? How you know they vampire anyway? Maybe just really pale person.”

“They've got one of those charms to prevent burning in sun.” 

“Pretty sure vampires aren't only creature that burns in sun.”

“Name one.” Moon thinks for a minute. Her first thought is to say trolls, but trolls turn to stone in the sun, which is completely different than burning. Moon racks her brain, but the only thing she can think of is vampires. There has to be other creatures that burn in the sun, she thinks. She decides to cheat and google it, but a cursory glance shows most of the creatures are vampires. She texts back, “Can't think of anything offhand. Let me know how it goes with vampire. Still never told me if they were cute.” 

Another customer walks in carrying a jewelry box. “Hi!” Moon calls. “You need a curse removed or you want to have us place charms on the jewelry box?” 

“First option,” the customer says, and Moon sees that she's wearing a pair of sturdy leather gloves. “You guys can remove curses, can't you?”

“Sure we can,” Moon says. “It might take a while depending on the curse. Let me take a look.” She gets out a box designed to hold cursed items. It has salt at the bottom and has been rubbed with oils from special plants. The customer drops it in the box. “So what seems to be the trouble with the box?” she asks.

“It's cursed so that it'll bite you if you try to open it.” Moon blinks. She knows that such a thing is possible, but it just seems so odd. She can understand enchanting a jewelry box to not open for anyone other than the owner, maybe have an alarm spell to alert to any stealing attempts. But enchanting an object to bite someone? Moon's curiosity takes hold. She motions for the customer to stand back and lifts the jewelry box out of the containment box. Nothing happens. For a moment Moon had pictured the box scuttling back and forth, snapping teeth, but the box just sits still. 

“I'm not lying,” the customer says. “The jewelry box really does try to bite people.” 

“I know you aren't lying,” Moon says. “But it's best if I see how the curse works so that I know how to stop it.” Moon cautiously reaches a finger out to the box. Instantly the lid flings back. Moon can see a row of gleaming teeth and has a moment to wonder where they came from before the box is lunging at her. Moon jumps back just in time. “Holy-shucks!” Moon cries. Saying holy shit in front of a customer wouldn't have been very professional. The customer raises a smug eyebrow. “Now do you believe me?” she asks. Moon nods and levitates the jewelry box back into the containment box.

“Where did someone find teeth to put on the jewelry box? Did they use a spell to make teeth grow into the jewelry box? Was it a partial spell, like Pinocchio transforming into a real boy or faeries making changelings from twigs? Or where they just hoarding teeth so they could use it on the jewelry box? Or maybe they went to those souvenir shops and got shark teeth. Why would you even enchant a jewelry box to bite people? I mean, I guess I would take a sort of satisfaction if someone tried to rob me and they got bitten instead.”

The customer holds up her hands. “I found that cleaning out my grandmother's house. I decided I better try to get the curse removed. I could have put the item in storage, but I figured it was better to just get the curse removed one time before someone got hurt.” 

She pulls off her gloves and Moon can see the deep bite marks. She winces. “That looks painful,” she says. “Here, I have something that can help.” She points and summons a jar of salve. “Mom doesn't approve of me using summoning spells to find things, but I think it works in a pinch.” It especially works when the store is crowded and customers demand her attention even though they see she's clearly talking to someone else and manners would dictate that they wait. She offers the salve to the customer. “Here. This should help your injury.” 

At first the customer is reluctant, but Moon insists. She tells her that she won't charge her for using the salve, if that's what she's worried about. Finally the woman relents and spreads the balm on her injury. Her eyes widen. “That's amazing!” she exclaims. Moon grins. “I made it myself,” she says. She goes on to tell the customer what plants she'd used when she'd made the salve. “I also enhanced it with a little bit of magic. Works nicely, right?” Moon should know. She'd injured herself numerous times testing it. So in fairness she supposes cutting herself with a knife to test a balm or a salve is no worse than cutting herself to test a healing spell.

“Do you sell more salves or balms?” the customer asks. 

Moon claps her hands. “Yes, we do! We sell balms, salves, potions for headaches, colds, coughs, aches and pains, potions for sleep, that sort of thing.” The customer doesn't buy any potions and Moon feels disappointed before she remembers that she had seemed impressed with the salve. Maybe she'll come back, Moon thinks. She's seen things in stores that she hasn't bought when she first sees them, but she has gone back and bought them the next day. She remembers the customer's reaction to her balm and smiles. She'd been able to help someone doing something she loved. She hadn't realized how good it would feel. 

The customer had left her information with Moon so she could call her when she had any updates. The next two hours pass by slowly. Moon takes the opportunity to go in the back and check on the inventory. She also takes the opportunity to practice the healing spell over again. It's getting easier to focus through the pain and gather her magic. But she notices that after a while it takes longer for the injury to heal. Moon sweats as she tries to heal the injury again, but the blood won't stop. Stay calm, she tells herself, and summons bandages. She presses hard to her wound until it stops bleeding. She heals the wound, but it takes longer this time. It might be like in Harry Potter when he was using the blood quill so frequently that his injury stopped healing. I probably injured myself in the same place too often, Moon thinks. That's probably enough for today. 

*  
When Moon's mom arrives, Moon is looking at her phone. “What are you looking at?” her mom asks. 

“Mallow wants to meet for lunch and a hike,” she says. For a moment she considers asking her mom what she thinks about her going back to school, but she doesn't. She knows her mom would support her, but if she told her mom she'd lose control of the situation. Her mom would press her to look into affordable programs, ask her how long it would take her to complete them, that sort of thing. Back when she was young and naive, Moon had thought that she'd just needed to complete her college degree and the job would sort itself out. But now she knows better. She knows that she needs to intern and network, to get as much practical experience as she can.

“You okay?” her mom asks, and Moon nods. 

“Yeah, I'm cool. I'll be back later. Oh, we have a cursed item to take care of. It's in the box. I wrote down the details of the curse and the customer information.” She hugs her mom goodbye and steps into the back room. There's a summoning circle on the floor and Moon steps into it. She texts Mallow that she's ready and she responds back with a smiley face. Moon folds her arms across her chest and makes sure that every part of her body is inside the circle. A few seconds later she feels a swooping sensation like when she's on a roller coaster. She closes her eyes. When she opens them again, she's in Mallow's room. Mallow hands her a piece of ginger candy to help with the motion sickness.

“So was the vampire cute?” Moon asks. “Did they order anything?”

“Cute enough,” Mallow says. “They ordered food, but I think it may have been for their partner.” 

“You could have asked if they could eat stuff other than blood,” Moon asks and Mallow rolls her eyes. 

“You know the motto here- we don't ask questions.” That's true enough. As long as the customers don't cause trouble, Mallow's family will serve them. 

“If it's not written on a plaque and mounted on the wall, it isn't a motto,” Moon insists. “You have goodies for me?”

Mallow laughs and hands Moon a plate of food. Moon digs into it with relish. “New recipe?” she asks. 

“Yeah. How do you like it?”

“It's good. Let me guess, you used cumin and coconut milk, right?”

“Yup. Can you taste the cumin? I didn't want to add too much because it can be overpowering, but you know what they say about less being more.”

“No, I can definitely taste it. It's subtle, but it's there. In a way I think that makes it even more fun because I have to try and identify what the mysterious flavor is. That would be a totally cool bride test. You know how in the fairy tales the bride has to pass a test? They should have it be a test to identify a mysterious ingredient in a dish.” 

“That would be really romantic,” Mallow sighs. “After all, nothing says I love you than preparing meals.” Mallow lived on the second floor of her family's restaurant. As they walked out the door, Moon catches a glimpse of the patrons. She can see horns, feathers, goat legs, and snakes tails. She nearly trips over a naga's tail. Vampires were pretty tame compared to creatures such as satyrs and nagas. The patrons greets Mallow cheerfully as she passes by and she waves back. Moon tries her best not to stare. Her town is small and she doesn't really see any supernatural creatures there. She supposes they could have been wearing a glamour and there are ways to see through that, but if that's the case Moon assumes that they don't want to be seen in their natural form and decides not to try and break the hypothetical glamour. 

“So how's work in the family shop coming?” Mallow asks. They're heading to the Lush Jungle for a hike and so Moon can pick up ingredients for potions. They've already cast the spells to keep away the bugs.

“Coming along fine,” Moon says. 

“Ever consider working somewhere else?” Mallow asks. Moon hesitates. She doesn't have a problem working in her family's shop, but she doesn't want to do it for the rest of her life. Still, it feels disloyal to say that even if her parents wouldn't have a problem with it.

“Are you asking me to work at your restaurant?” Moon asks. “Does that mean I get free food?” 

Mallow huffs. “I don't see why you're asking about free food. You already get free food.” 

“Yes, but I'd get free food and be paid.” 

“You aren't being offered a job at my restaurant. But there's a herbalist in town that needs assistance. I mentioned you to him.” Moon stops for a second and takes a moment to digest what Mallow has said. A herbalist needs help. Mallow has mentioned her to him. Moon grabs Mallow and squeezes her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she exclaims.

Mallow laughs and disentangles herself. “It's not that big of a deal. He was at the restaurant and I asked how he was going and he mentioned that he's having a hard time moving around and keeping up with the orders. I mentioned that my friend was good at potions and he wanted to meet you.” The hope that blooms in her chest is something fragile and lovely. Then it crashes to the ground. “Did he mention anything about hours?” she asks. 

“No.” 

Moon texts her mom to tell her the news, but her phone is never on. Moon thinks her mom should just get a tattoo that will burn whenever Moon or her dad needs to get in contact with her. So like a Dark Mark except not evil. 

*  
Moon loves the Lush Jungle. She loves the scent of the dirt and trees. She loves how she has to watch her step so she doesn't stumble over roots, how she has to brush aside vines, the flowers blooming. She loves how the trees tower above her. She's always imagined them as kings and queens and the leaves are just their embroidered cloaks. She takes special care to avoid trees tied with a black cord. Those are dryad trees and interfering with them is against the law. She's heard that when the dryad's tree dies the dryad dies, or maybe it's vice versa.

Moon gathers the herbs she needs. Some of them will be for potions to help with coughs, others will be used to help with headaches, and others will be used to help with burns. Her phone chimes. Moon pulls it out to see that her Mom has replied to her text. “Yeah!” She's also added a smiley face emoji, which Moon feels is just fundamentally wrong. Her mom is her mom. She's not supposed to use emojis. She doesn't even use emojis. Moon sees that her mom is typing and waits. The question pops up a moment later. “Which herbs are used to repel ghosts?”

Moon texts back what she needs to use and sends her pictures of what they look like. She turns to Mallow to say something when she becomes aware of a noise. It isn't the usual forest noise like birds or the rustle of insects or the burrowing of animals. This sounds like music. “Do you hear that?” she asks Mallow.

Mallow nods. “I do. What do you think it is?” 

“Might just be a couple of kids having a party or a picnic or just hanging out. Want to go check it out?” She doesn't wait for Mallow's answer. The music is tugging at her. She can barely hear it, but she needs to hear more of it. It doesn't have any words, so Moon can't google lyrics to it. But she can hear the music beckoning to her. Her feet speed up until before she knows it she's running. She has to find the music.

She bursts into the clearing. There are people in the clearing and they're the most beautiful people she's ever seen. They're dancing in a circle, laughing, and Moon suddenly wants to dance with them. One of the people look over and beckon to her. They want her to join them. Moon doesn't need an invitation and moves to join them. But she can't move. Something jerks her back.

When she glances down, Moon sees that a root has wrapped around her ankle. She blinks. Why has the root wrapped around her ankle? Roots don't do that. She tries to yank her ankle free, but the root holds her firm. Now another root is latching onto her other ankle. Moon thrashes, ignoring the fact that she's bleeding. Part of her knows that she should be scared. She knows that she should be worried about why tree roots are attacking her and if she's going to be impaled by the branches or absorbed by the trees or dragged into the earth. But all that matters is that the beautiful people want her to dance and she can't join them.

“Moon!” they call. “Moon!” How do they know her name? She's never met them. She would remember if she had. “Moon!” they call again. “Moon!” Something grips her arms and for a moment Moon struggles, thinking it's more roots. But no. What grips her is soft. Moon looks down and sees hands. Hands that grip her gently but firmly. She can smell something else now. The scent of sausages and spices. She knows that smell. She remembers lying in a bed with that smell wrapped all around her. She remembers a voice, giggling with the voice in the wee hours of the night. 

She blinks and her head clears. Mallow is holding her hands. Mallow, who always smells like her family's restaurant. “Mallow?” she croaks, and Mallow makes a sound of relief. “Thank goodness!” Moon's head feels a bit foggy, but she doesn't have the urge to go and dance any more. She tells Mallow as much and Mallow releases her from the roots. She does keep a protective hand on Moon's arm.

“What happened?” Moon whispers. She's afraid to draw too much attention to herself.

“I saw you about to join the faeries,” Mallow answers. “I kept calling and calling, but you wouldn't listen. I figured I needed to restrain you.” Blood is dripping down Moon's ankles. Mallow winces. “Sorry about that.” 

“No, it's fine. Better this than-oh, shit!” Now that her mind isn't clouded by faerie glamour or faerie magic or whatever the faeries were doing, she can think clearly. And she can see the human dancer. It's obvious. The human dances with far less grace. Her movements are erratic and jerky. Suddenly Moon remembers the stories about people stepping into faerie rings and being forced to dance with the faeries. She doesn't remember if the parts about them dancing themselves to death or dancing until their feet have been worn down to bloody stubs is part of the legends or her own imagination, but either way she's not finding out. She squeezes Mallow's hand and jerks her head at the circle. Now that her senses aren't clouded, Moon can see the circle of mushrooms. If she hadn't nearly been lured into one and there wasn't someone maybe being danced to death, she would have been quite pleased to see a faerie ring. She'd always wanted to before.

“How are we going to save her?” Mallow mouths. 

Moon thinks it over. “I've read that a companion yanks the victim back. You'd better do it since you weren't taken by the glamour or whatever. Just grab the girl and I'll grab you.” Mallow nods and creeps towards the circle of faeries. Moon creeps after her. She feels like a little kid exploring a “haunted” house with her friend, except the danger now is real. 

Mallow hovers and Moon is reminded of an animal waiting to pounce. Suddenly she reaches out and snatches the girl. They both fall backward with the force of Mallow's tug and Moon hurries to help. She's tense, waiting for the faerie glamour to enchant her again, but it doesn't. She doesn't know if it's because she's wise to that trick and more alert or because she has more pressing problems to worry about. She helps Mallow to her feet. The girl is unconscious.

Moon glances at the faeries. They're watching her the way predators probably did prey, but they weren't making any moves to attack her or Mallow. That was fine with her. She and Mallow support the girl between them, backing away slowly. Moon doesn't want to take her eyes off the faeries. She keeps waiting for them to chase her and Mallow, but they don't.

*  
When they get out of Lush Jungle, Mallow dials for help while Moon examines the girl. Her feet are torn up and bleeding, but that's to be expected. Moon gathers her magic and begins to heal the wounds. It's easier this time. Moon isn't sure if it's because she's not healing herself and therefore the pain can't distract her, or because healing an unconscious person might be easier.

“What are you doing?” Mallow exclaims. 

“Healing her,” Moon explains.

“Since when do you know how to heal people magically and not just with potions and salves?”

“Since a few hours ago.” 

“A few hours ago-what did you do?” Thankfully, the ambulance arrives and saves Moon the trouble of having to respond. Moon and Mallow explain what happened. “I can't believe there are faeries in the Lush Jungle!” Moon exclaims, after the girl is loaded into the ambulance. It's a ridiculous thing to say since she's seen faeries at Mallow's family restaurant before, but those faeries weren't doing anything wrong that she could see. The monsters that went inside the restaurant were tame. They followed rules. But in the Lush Jungle-Moon shudders at how easily she'd been lured into a trap. If Mallow hadn't been with her, who knows what would have happened?

She grabs Mallow's hand. “Thanks for saving me,” she says.

“You're welcome. I was so scared when I saw you going toward the faeries.”

“How come their magic didn't work on you?” In truth, Moon is kind of embarrassed and resentful about that. Then she tells herself that it's a good thing that Mallow wasn't affected.

Mallow shrugs. “I guess because I could see that you were in trouble.”

“So the power of friendship, then. And here I thought it was just a bunch of anime bullshit.” 

Mallow laughs.

*  
Mallow isn't happy when Moon tells her how she learned the healing spell. She paces back and forth in her room while Moon curls up on the bed, hugging the blanket to her. “You know how I recognized you? Your scent.” Mallow pauses in mid rant and blinks at Moon. “What?” 

“Well, I didn't know what was going on because of the faerie mojo, but I recognized your scent.” Mallow's brow furrows and she sniffs at her armpits discreetly. She wrinkles her nose. 

“I don't smell that bad,” she protests. “And you probably smell even worse.” 

“One of my biology professors told us she was attracted to her husband because of his sweat,” Moon says. “Apparently if you have a compatible immune system with someone you find the smell of their sweat pleasant.” 

“What kind of a basis for a relationship is that? Do you just approach someone who just finished working out and say that their sweat smells really nice?” 

Moon holds up her hands. “I'm not advocating that as an acceptable method of picking someone up. But you smell like your family's restaurant. It made me think of all the times I spent hanging out here.” 

Mallow smiles. “That's so sweet.” Then her expression turns stern. “Now I want you to promise me that you won't injure yourself any more so you can heal yourself.” Moon hesitates and Mallow huffs. “Come on, Moon. The Healers study for years before they actually begin healing. There are so many things that could go wrong. You hear about shit happening all the time and those are trained professionals.” Moon frowns. She knows Mallow has a point and she hates it. Mallow's face softens. “I just don't want to see you hurt, Moon. Remember when you tried to build up an immunity to poison?”

“I was ingesting controlled amounts of the poison,” Moon protests, and at the look on Mallow's face she decides she'd better quit while she's ahead. She promises Mallow. Mallow sags with relief. “I didn't know you were interested in Healing. I thought you liked working with plants and making potions.” 

“I do. It's just there's so much to learn and potions and healing goes hand in hand.” 

“Are you going to go back to school?” 

Moon sighs. “I don't know. I like not having term papers to write and I'd be in even more debt if I decided to go back to school.”

“Better career options, though,” and Moon makes a noise of agreement. 

*  
When she gets home, Moon can hear the television and knows that her dad is home. Her mom has dinner waiting for her. It's on a plate with a spell to keep it warm. Moon grabs the plate and joins her dad on the couch. “What, Mallow didn't feed you?” he teases, and Moon rolls her eyes.

“She did, but that was hours ago. Besides, mom made dinner and I didn't want her efforts to be wasted.” Over dinner and during the breaks in the television show they're watching, Moon tells her parents about what happened. She can see the frowns on their faces. Her mom hugs her. “I'm glad you're okay. Thank goodness Mallow was there. Is that other girl going to be okay?” 

Moon shrugs. “I think so. Hopefully it's just exhaustion and injured feet.”

“What are they going to do about the faeries?” her dad asks. 

“I'm not sure. I'll text Mallow later and ask.”

Mallow actually texts her, to tell her that the herbalist wants to meet her tomorrow. Moon's heart leaps and she thinks that this is such short notice, but she figures it's a good thing. She'll have less time to panic. Then she remembers that she has to work and texts Mallow to find out if she can come after she gets off work. Mallow responds that she's already mentioned to the herbalist that Moon has to work and that he's willing to let her have a flexible schedule.

Moon closes her phone. Her thoughts swirl around. Please let me get this job, she thinks. Please. She's tempted to perform a spell for good luck, but she decides against it. She wants to get the job on her own merit, not because of a spell. She wants to have the chance to work at what she enjoys doing, what she loves. Let me get this job, she pleads again.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know what you think.


End file.
